EXECUTIONER'S SONG. ❪ Steve Rogers ❫ ✓

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Their time spent together felt like a forbidden moment. Eyes would attach to his back as he made way to her room in the compound. She was always waiting for him in her room where she always was. He always entered her room quietly as if scared to wake her up - but she rarely slept. She was getting better, believe it or not. She was slowly getting more sleep each day he came to visit her like a prince visited his princess.

Teaching each other how to love was not a lesson to be taught. They were both learning as students, leaning toward each other for support and company.

Since she had been reverted back, he was busy again, going on missions more often alone or with a team. Their time together was becoming less and less, but they never forgot each other. They remembered each other in their memories of giddy laughter and broken admittance of feelings.

She found herself waiting for him to come home every night, but when F.R.I.D.A.Y. requested her to sleep, she would for as long as she could.

It was his duty to serve his country. That was what he believed, but his time to serve was over. He technically was supposed to die the day the Valkyrie crashed, but he was thrust into the future in order to serve a different sort of war and danger altogether.

She was different from Peggy. At first, she had reminded him of Peggy, and perhaps he was a little hopeful, but then as he held her the first time she attempted to kill herself, he realized she was not Peggy. The she that he mistook for Peggy was a broken-down, controlled she, and instead of retreating back in order to save the embarrassment of another failed relationship, he held her as tightly as he could without hurting her because they were both hurting.

She had attempted to drown herself in the bathtub one day when Steve was not there to help her. She was only getting ready to clean herself after not showering for almost a week, but she swore the bathtub was calling her to it. She wasn't sure what happened because she barely registered getting into the tub, so when she woke up coughing in the arms of Tony who had been alerted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. of her slow heartbeat, she ended up having a panic attack.

When Steve and Natasha returned from their joint mission the next day, Tony informed them of what had happened. She was in the infirmary, which was really more like a smaller hospital within the compound. Steve hadn't stormed into the room in order to demand why she would do such a thing like he wanted to because Natasha reminded him that she was not his soldier. She was broken and needed to heal properly.

Instead, he forced himself to calm down and walk into the infirmary, making a beeline for the bed she was laying in. He talked to her about the people he saved because he learned she liked to hear about them, instead of the hits he took. He told her how talented Natasha was on the field, but stopped the moment she asked how old Natasha was because he realized he made a mistake since Natasha was part of the Red Room. He told her they were successful on the mission. Then finally, he asked why she did it.

She said she didn't know, and he thought it was worse than if she did have a reason for doing it. He stayed by her side for the rest of the day.